Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Autumn Through the Years

Dr Abe V Rotor


Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Autumn Through the Years in acrylic.  

I've always kept autumn in a frame;
the frame now old but not the painting;
a scene wedged by summer and winter
suspended in time and ecstasy
of sweet living memory.

Memory of golden years past prime,
in the song, The Last Rose of Summer,
yet filled with Life Let Us Cherish,
with the sun brightest at sunset
and wisdom in its fullest. ~



   

Monday, March 30, 2015

Waterfall - Link of Land and Sky, Body and Soul

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Waterfall painting in acrylic, by AVRotor 2015

Reach the sky through the waterfall,
     from cloud to rain down the stream,
cascading, tumbling, in a column,
     link of reality and ones dream. 

And down the river of no return
     meandering  through the valley,
seeking its destination the sea 
     in a never ending story. 

Life is like that of the waterfall 
     link of time and space and all, 
with neither beginning nor end, 
     the essence of body and soul. ~  



A Dirge of the Pasig River

"Mother, let me die, there's no more sense of living, for I do not belong to humans anymore, I swear; I'm no longer a part of creation, I'm but a stranger... "

Dr Abe V Rotor


Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday
Death of an estero (tributary), the result of unabated pollution and siltation
Pasig River, Pasay City MM. Photo by Mary Kathleen Manalastas

I am dying, Mother, my mother whose womb was
     as virgin as the day I was born a rivulet to stream, 
estero to a tributary that feeds the mighty sea,
     as virgin as the Paradise of Milton's dream.


Mother, let me die - or let me sleep then forever,
     for neither can I flow out to sea nor keep in the sun;

let me die with garbage and silently sink in the murk,

     with foul gases, on thickening sludge, silt and sand.


I hear no songs anymore, Abelardo is long dead;
     I see no living garlands, not a bird building nest
among lilies and floating kiapo, among the nilad,
     pride of a race, woven into mats for lovely rest. 



Ahoy there! Two children are staring at my water 
      but they can't see what is inside me, I am as black,

as a dark night, but oh, how my heart longs for them!

     I have lost all things good - even as a mirror I lack.


Mother, let me die, there's no more sense of living,
     for I do not belong to humans anymore, I swear;
I'm no longer a part of creation, I'm but a stranger;
     but my mother doesn't answer;
     my mother doesn't answer.~ 

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Let's save the palm trees this Palm Sunday.

The Return of the Mangrove

Dr Abe V Rotor 
Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Acknowledgment: JBLFMU Ecological Park Ecological Park, Nueva Valencia, Guimaras Island.

Ode to the mangrove

You are Nature's pioneer
between land and sea,
halting the sea
from moving to land,
and land to sea;
being her referee,
she has set you free.

AVR (Light in the Woods)
 Board walk made of bamboo takes the visitor into the heart of the mangrove swamp.


Breathing roots or pneumatopores  of mangrove stick out at low tide; brace and prop roots cling to the muddy bottom; old leaves decompose into organic matter or detritus.


Mangrove seedlings



Deer now extinct in the island stands as stone monument.  



Stone crocodile is a reminder of its presence in the island a long time ago; charred remains of a mangrove species, probably Brugiera or Ceriops 
Field Study: Participants to the 20th annual conference of the Philippine Society for Educational Research and Evaluation (PSERE) May 10 and 11, 2012, representing some 20 universities and colleges in the Philippines, visit the ecological center in Nueva Valencia, Guimaras.  Research towards Sustainable Development is the theme of the conference.




Fifteen Reasons I Love the Mangrove 

I love the mangrove for building a natural wall against tidal waves and tsunami, at the edge of the sea; 

I love the mangrove for providing a nursery for fish and other aquatic life, weaning them to the open sea;

I love the mangrove for rip-rapping the shores and banks against erosion, and building soil in the process;

I love the mangrove for its rich biodiversity - flora and fauna, protists and monera - in chains and webs;

I love the mangrove for filtering the salt and dust in the air, and buffering noise into sweet sound;  

I love the mangrove for the legends and tales it holds - of fairies and mermaids, of pirates and treasures;  

I love the mangrove for its unique life cycle - self-regenerating, self-fertilizing, needing no cultivation; 
  
I love the mangrove for the countless valuable materials it gives, from timber, to firewood, tannin, to medicine;

I love the mangrove for keeping the surroundings cool, freshening the air, absorbing carbon in the air;

I love the mangrove for its mixed stand of vegetation by layers, making a distinct forest of its own kind;

I love the mangrove for being the home of migrating birds coming and going every season of the year; 

I love the mangrove for being the home of rare species, heretofore barely studied and identified;

I love the mangrove for its resistance to pollution, and ability to help nature's housekeeping;
  
I love the mangrove for its being a natural tourists' attraction, field laboratory, and educational center;

I love the mangrove for its humility and persistence, even in a most hostile  environment;

I love the mangrove for what it is, without it, there are species that cannot survive, humans among them. 

I love the mangrove for being part of creation, for every living thing has a purpose on earth. ~ 

Friday, March 27, 2015

Philippine Narra Blooms in Summer

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday
Narra - Pterocarpus indicus - is the Philippine national tree. Its wood is highly prized for furniture and construction material. Its cutting is totally banned. The tree grows to 33 meters nigh and 2 meters in diameter with an irregular fluted trunk. Its leaves are compound, pinate, 15 to 30 cms long, ovate to elliptic in shape, with 5 to 9 leaflets per leaf. It blooms from February until May. The flowers are numerous, and in clusters, yellow and fragrant. Fruit is disc-shaped, flat, with winged margins, for which it got its genus name.

There are folkloric uses of narra, among are the following:
- The young leaves and flowers are reportedly edible; the flowers are a good source of honey.
- The young leaves applied to boils, prickly heat and ulcers.
- Infusion of the leaf used as shampoo.
- Used for bladder ailments, diarrhea, headache, stones, sores and dropsy.
- Decoction used as a gargle for sore throats; as an astringent; as a mouthwash for toothaches.
- The resin "kino" has similar actions as tannin and catechu. It is taken for its astringent effect in chronic diarrhea, leucorrhea, blenorrhea and hemorrhages.
- Used as a solution for enemas for prolapse of the rectum and anal fissure.
- Also a source of red dye and a gum.

References: Philippine Medicinal Plants by Godofredo Stuart; Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by Eduardo Quisumbing; and Plants of the Philippines by William H Brown. Photo by Abe V Rotor.

Prayers in Paintings and Praises

Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday

Selected Praises:

1.  "In every move we make, never forget that God knows and sees us."

2.  "If I lose myself in You, O Lord, I'd find myself."


3,  "Work done to the best of one's ability is a pleasing offering to Him."


4.  "Self-realization, self-renunciation, self-conquest make one live."


Acknowledgment: Dr Belen Lorezca-Tangco, University of Santo Tomas Publishing House. Copies of the Booklet is available at the UST Bookstore. Architecture-Fine Arts Building, Corner España and P Noval Sts., Manila 

Cycle and Synergy

Dr Abe V Rotor 
Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday

Monument of Fr Miquel Buenavides OP, founder of UST in 1611.
Cycle 

The church bells are ringing:
Prayer, prayer, prayer in trinity -

Child to man, man’s wandering,
And man’s return to reality;
Rising with the sun and meeting
His Creator and eternity. ~



Wall mural AVR 2000, St Paul University QC
Synergy 
Life is more than the sum of its parts,
It dies as each creature departs;
Synergy its secret of unity,
Its harmony and mystery.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Five "S" in Workplace Safety

Dr Abe V Rotor 
Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

5s is a systematic way of organizing the work area, following rules and regulations on safety and health, maintaining discipline to make work faster, cheaper, effective, more organized, safer, and productive.  5s stands for the following:  
Sort means looking around the workplace and disposing all unnecessary items.

Systematize is arranging the necessary items in good order for use.

Sweep mean s cleaning the workplace.

Sanitize means maintaining high standards of house keeping.

Self-discipline means "doing things spontaneously without being told or ordered." 

Reference: Occupational Safety and Health Center
North Avenue corner Science Road
Diliman, QC
http:// www.oshc.dole.gov.ph

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Living with Nature School on Blog Viewership

1,385,517 Pageviews (1 pageview per user) in 1 day (RankGlimpse). 
Dr Abe V Rotor 
Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

This report pertains specifically to Living with Nature School on Blog (avrotor.blogspot.com). 

NOTE: There is no available data on the combined pageviews of the Blog and listeners to Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (739 DZRB national and international network, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday).  Both programs are simultaneous since 2010.  Thus one can listen to the radio broadcast  while viewing the Website. The author is thankful for the data from RankGlimpse sourced from the Internet, as presented below (except the Top !0 viewers). There is however a need to subject such data for verification. 
 March 24, 2015
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10 Countries with  top viewership (May 2010 to March 2015)  


Junkyard Art

Life resurrects from the junkyard - through art.  
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

The useless, the forgotten, the eyesore, or simply junk,
they become beautiful pieces of art:
A neo-renaissance movement with ecological message,
redeeming man from morals defiled;
Monuments, big and small, they speak of human frailty
turned ingenuity.
Fine art and craft, artist and artisan, formal or informal,
they make no difference, they are one;
Aesthetics defied, the ugly becomes beautiful, its depth
from the inner self, fountain of joy.
Monsters tamed, they live in the park, now have a home,
no longer outcasts in the graveyard;
They speak, "You gave me life, I'll always be your friend."


Ecological Message
Too much glare from the hole in the sky, the thinned ozone layer.
 The air is heavy and thick, it is suffocating.  The earth is burdened,
like an overloaded spaceship, poorly kept and manned.   
Function to Dysfunction
Anti-thesis of peace, of methodology, of dialectics and law;
of dreams and goals, of plans and programs - ultimately, 
disregard to the cycles of Nature. 
Music Reborn 
Taming music from the dead but not a dirge; it is rejoice.  Music is 
the language of renewal, of rebirth. It is Grieg's Morning
Beethoven's Pastoral, Abelardo's Mutya ng Pasig.  
 
Metal Sunflowers 
A replica of Vincent van Gogh's painting of Sunflowers in our times, 
sans fragrance, freshness, and daintiness - yet proud and bearing; 
to the bold and courageous, unafraid to face and follow the sun.     
  
Wind with a Face
Imagine where the wind blows, clouds in many faces changing, 
treetops swaying, leaves rustling with the passing breeze. 
Make it funny, make it queer, copy nature 
in man's folly and cheer.  
                               
Requiem to the Park
Whatever happened to the people's park
Nothing roams around but ghosts;
Empty chairs, empty kiosks,
Leafless trees, blind lamp posts
Eerie, man seems lost
                                          
Man, the Genie
Rising from the confines of his ingenuity,
like Gulliver among his little kind;
Man reigns over earth with his technology,
 sans happiness if ever he could find. 
                           
Fairy Tale Alive
Disneyland brought dreams alive;
many times children would laugh or cry. 
Castles in changing view, ever new, but nothing
compares with the castle in the sky.  
A Picasso Revived
Abstract art in collage, once whole and true;
but who argues about life today tired and rue? 


NOTE: Acknowledgement: These photos, discovered from an old file, were taken way back circa 1996.  It was an exhibit I attended upon the invitation of a student of mine from St Paul University QC who was then connected with Pylox Philippines. ~ 
                   

Summer Joy

Sister Jude Belmonte Paat, SPC
Guest writer, in loving memory


Painting in acrylic by AVRotor 2002

The April sun pours its warmth
into the morning and we are roused.

We run to gather siniguelas,
once dark green turned carmine,
now orange-red cupped in our hands.

We comb fruit-laden chico and pomelo trees;
we frolic with the prelude of kakawate's
balding branches yielding delicate blossoms
arching behind your playhouse.

The gurgle of the Owaig has ceased,
but its silence evokes brilliant bursts of joy
as you bravely scamper to this forbidden place
with 3-year-old Chevit aping you,
painting your lips, teeth and tongue
purple under the duhat tree.

You guffaw with the kid brother
as the hammock between sturdy rimas trees
swings full into the air.

How long can our sounds soar
to screen the heat of the sun?

Soon, the spell of dusk downs
and drowns to deliver the day of reckoning.~


Sister Jude Belmonte Paat, Sister Mamerta Rocero, and Sister Macarius Lacuesta formed a triumvirate of poetesses that brought the Paulinian community to literary fame in their generation. Their poems transcend spirituality to idealism and rationality of mankind. They bring back the values of old, weaving them with love and joy of creation, and exuding God’s presence everywhere. This triumvirate left behind a legacy of a golden era that shall remain forever in the hearts of those touched by their genius and deep concern for humanity. (AV Rotor)

A critique on the poems of Sister Rocero is found this Blog: Sister Mamerta Rocero, SPC, PhD - A Religious for All Seasons (January 22, 2010)

Friday, March 20, 2015

Vendors, Vendors: Entrepreneurs at the Grassroots

In the art of marketing, vendors are closest to the grassroots, both at the producers' and consumers' end They make a bridge where commodities and services flow without the rigid laws of economics and legal intervention, thus creating informal niches of commerce and industry.

Dr Abe V Rotor


Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday
Sidewalk fruit stall, Diliman, QC

There is no escape from the vendor. On the sidewalk, at the bus station, subdivision, office, stoplight (Sampaguita!), in the middle of the night (Balot!). Name what you need and he is there, right at your doorstep.

And if you wish to meet his kind, go to your nearest public market or talipapa (makeshift market), and there you will be swarmed by old and young alike, and you will be exulted (or pestered) with profuse courtesies and persistent pleadings. Offerings make a long list and may save you from the rounds and rigors of informal transactions, congested sidewalks, noisy radios, slippery walks, potpourri of smell. Before you know it your chore is over.

The personal service vendors offer is beyond compare with the vending machine or mall or fast food. They are so natural and spontaneous, their stories and joke - how familiar! But their wits may not be welcomed, yet the touch is there, and the human behind the ware may be a kind old woman or a child learning the trade wide. They make a class of their own, a culture distinctly vending, and I guess there is no better word for it - vendors.

Vendors make a link of the producer on one hand, and the buyer on the other. They form a chain of informal niches, which virtually define specialization and jurisdiction in the area, say a market, or a busy sidewalk. In some cases such structure is rigid structure, a kind of cartel, or call it cooperative (everyone should cooperate with the rules).

What is this art and practice called vending? It must have grown with tradition until it became an institution of sort. When I was a kid, I used to accompany my auntie to market to sell some farm produce which in modern parlance is called marketable surplus, and in the process she generates cash (monetize) out of some rice or chickens. With enough cash (liquidity) dad would pay our loan (obligation), our tuition, our insurance premium, and other expenses. And when it is milling time, we made sugar, local wine called basi, and vinegar. Today we call this processing (agro-industry in the economic sense), and because there is an increase in the value of the commodity we call this gain, value-added. Since we made two, three or more different products economists would call this diversification. To keep the quality and make the product presentable we did some kind of packaging. Put together, this is agribusiness.

While vending is an art of selling, there are many things that go with it. Many vendors actually produce their items, others process them. Others repack them into smaller units or volumes. Imagine a housewife prepare packed lunch to meet orders, a broom maker and necklace maker convert raw materials into beautiful finished products. A fruit vendor picks the fruits, transports and ripens them, or makes them into jam and jelly. Market-focused, these are planned to enhance the scalability of the products and therefore, the profitability trade. This is economics at the roots level.

Broom Maker

Lenny Linsangan makes broom from bamboo and sells them house-to-house. I met her at Lagro, Quezon City. I bought one walis tambo (soft broom) and a long-stemmed broom the ceiling for PI00 for the two. She has been in the business for three years now since she learned the of making brooms from neighbors near the Malaria Control Center in Caloocan. She is one of some two dozen broom makers in her barangay.Jenny earns P200 in a day's round to augment her husband's earning as a carpenter.

"Our broom can compare with those from Baguio," she said with pride, "and it is relatively cheaper." Lenny is an example of a housewife of three very young children who has found a trade through her own initiative.

Tinobong Maker

Tinobong is rice cake cooked in bamboo, a specialty of the Ilocos region. A big one costs P 15, while the smaller ,is PI 0 each which is good for one sitting for a hungry bull. I can finish one myself. All you have to do is heat the tinubong for a few minutes, crack the bottom part by striking it on a hard material, say a post, then split it open. A spoon does the trick to dislodge the sticky, tasty cake made of glutinous rice, brown sugar and coconut. Tinubong is a signature product of Sto Domingo, Ilocos Sur, some 20 kilometers north of Vigan. It caters to tourists and the balikbayan. It has a shelf life of three days on the average.

To eat tinobong, first crack the bottom end, split, and scoop the ensconced delicacy.

Kesong Puti Vendor

Another signature product is kesong puti or carabao cheese of Laguna. I bought a whole bundle costing PI00 from Mario, 36 years old, near a resort in Calamba, Laguna. There are ten individual bundles wrapped with fresh banana leaves, the white cheese still oozing fresh. "It was harvested just this morning that is why it is fresh," Mar told me, "unlike commercial cheese," he added. Its taste is salty and the texture is loose, but this is the local cheese that I have known since college. The process has not changed in spite of the presence of the Dairy Training and Research Institute at UPLB, the next town. I still have a copy of a research paper by UPLB on how carabao cheese can be made with the likes and standard of Danish cheese. Maybe it is time to look at it again with the revival of interest in the carabao with the bill now a law which was introduced by former President Joseph Estrada when he was senator.

Door-to-door RTW Vendor

It is quite interesting to find your ready-to-wear that suits your taste and fits you from the ambulant RTW vendors when a whole mall doesn't have it. Well, it is because they have as many to choose from, and if you give your specifications, they come back for your order. That is how persistent vendors are.

Pauline Alintago is 44, and has six children. Her husband is a peddler and repairman, and works with their eldest son, making their rounds in nearby subdivisions.

Nimfa Arbose, 44, Pauline's companion and neighbor has three children. Her husband is a taxi driver. Their eldest is studying computer education at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

These are two determined mothers in t e RTW business. The y have a credit on wholesale on the goods they sell, putting a markup of l0 to 15 percent. That's a good P250 daily, half day round. , "It is our suki (established buyers) that keeps our little business steady," they said. In any business the suki is a VIP.

The Young Ones

They are too young to be in the trade, call it children abuse. They should be at home or in the school, but they have to augment family Income. I admire their early training. I know on the farm children are taught early to take care of the animals, sow and harvest the field, do a variety of farm and household chores. During our time this is no case of child abuse. It is part of our discipline, and the nature of farm life.

What I detest is that in the city, children are made to front for begging, camouflaged with things to sell like sampaguita necklace and dish cloth. Or children are deprived of their studies, robbed from enjoying childhood, even of their very health and chance to grow up. Times are different. Parents or employers are held responsible.

On the other hand imagine this scenario I often witness in Chinese stores. A child learns many things as he lends a hand and soon knows how to compute, weigh, wrap, label, help in the inventory. I compare this child with a farmhand. How these children start early in life is sometimes not so many parents may agree on. For me they will become more successful than those whose lives are surrounded by only TV and computers, or so-called modern-times amenities.

Vendors, vendors everywhere and there is perhaps no item or service they cannot provide for you. At home, on the street, in the office - you do not have to go far to look for something you need. For me I have long joined their ranks. I still carry on my father's trade of making basi wine and vinegar for the tourist shops, and manage a family frame shop. I have the feeling I am more known for these products, just like how I see my suki every time. Of course I am proud of it.

Bamboo Craft Peddler

I was driving back to Manila when I chanced upon a basket maker in Villasis, Pangasinan. I took the dirt road to see the shop and examine the products, and with the intention to choose something native. Here you can see hatching baskets. Hanging on a tree, the hen makes use of the basket to lay eggs and hatch them. Here is a bamboo cradle that we do not often see nowadays. Portable benches, easy chairs, kitchen wares made of bamboo and wood rather than metal or plastic are some of the main native products. Examining them sends a nostalgic feeling for what I sorely miss.

"It's a dying industry," sighs Bert, a native of the place whose family has been in the business for two generations. "Plastics have taken over, and wood and bamboo are getting scarce and expensive."

I agree. That's why you do not see gypsy caravans selling native crafts anymore. When my children were young they were amused to see the caravan, carts pulled by large white bullocks (St. Gertrudes breed). The cart is store, home, vehicle, rolled in one. At night time the carts are arranged like wagons of the old West, while the animals are tied in one place to graze or feed on ration. "What can you do about it?" Bert seemed to ask. His face was sad. I did not ask any discount for the hatching basket.

Candon Calamay, A Specialty

Second to Vigan, the capital, Candon is the center of business and commerce in the second district of Ilocos Sur. What is unique with the place is that it is home of the calamay (in coconut shell or not). If you go up North, be sure to stop at the plaza and you can't miss the rows of stalls selling the unique product. Here you will find chichacorn (corn cooked like chicharon), rice cakes of all sort, from suman to tupig. There are three places I know which also specialize on sweets, Baliwag I Bulacan, Carmen in Pangasinan, and Calamba-Los Banos in Laguna. Vendors in these places take pride in their products which contribute to the reputation of the place. There are however, unscrupulous vendors you should be keen at.

Calamay in coconut shell costs PIOO to PI20 a pair. Normally it has a shelf life of 3 to 4 days and this allows the balikbayan to take it for pasalubong. Proudly Philippine made and marketed, vendor- style.

Barbecue and Fishball Vendor

If there is a very appetizing food by its aroma alone that haunts the air around schools, at bus stops, on sidewalks, other marketplace - in fact in any nook where people want viand as pulotan - it is definitely barbecue. Ah, you know what I am talking about.

One book says, "You are a Filipino if..." - if you stop at a barbecue stand, and hang up for some time for your favorite adidas, IUD, bulaklak (terms to describe chicken feet, small intestines of the chicken, or pig, among others), to be cooked before your eyes, well done or medium rare, while holding your appetite. A dip into a communal mixed spice, a bite from the top, another at the bottom or middle, then a third, and one stick is consumed, then you begin with the second, and - depending on your budget - go for a third or fourth. Move over McDo, KFC, Jollibee.

Meet Ben Palisada, 40, fishball vendor who has diversified into pugo (quail) egg, hotdog, crushed ice and gulaman (sweetened gel drink). "It's a tiring work, but I like it and I have many suki (regular customers)." Recently I stopped at his station which is near an aquarium shop and school supplies store. There were schoolchildren milling around Ben's portable cart, a shade of the versatile CRV. I was a child again for a moment until the children were back to their classroom and Ben began replenishing his stock. He turned to his sale, and he said he makes a net of P250 to P300 a day. Not bad for an entrepreneur in his own right.

Fish Vendor

Marjorie Jacob 37, carries a basket, old-folk style, and when you hear her call, "Isda, isda" even at a distance, you know she came down from La Mesa Dam where tilapia, hito, dalag are caught regularly. She weighs the still struggling fish cleans it and that saves you from rigors of going to the wet market Besides, you are certain the fish is fresh, and of course very safe. I need not tell how it is going to be cooked but if it is a weekend, there is no more enjoyable than broiled over charcoal tilapia or hito with fresh tomato, onion, ginger and home patis (fish sauce). Don't forget a piece or two of labuyo.


Fish vendors
Tingi-tingi

Typically we do not buy wholesale for the kitchen, but rather, by tingi (small divisions or parcels). We seldom buy a whole squash, two three segments are what we need for a recipe. Spices come by cloves, pieces, or a I00-gram utmost. In the market just tell your suki vendor what you are going to cook. Pinakbet, and she will hand you a package complete with vegetable and spice combination, sans the meat or fish that you wish to add. Go to the meat section, and you will find prepared packages for dinuguan or papaitan ready for pick up. The ingredients are complete and well balanced.

Who says it is a monopoly of super markets and groceries and instant noodles? I say vendors are even more efficient and personalized in serving our needs. They are there where big business ends, when the malls are closed, or where there is no market.

Vendors, vendors everywhere for all the things you need. What more do you ask for? ~


Talipapa (flea market)

Local gypsy - family and goods on the move